Trial of contact tracing app starts in UK
Nicola Sturgeon sounded a note of caution over an NHS app to track suspected coronavirus cases as the UK government urged residents on the Isle of Wight to take part in a pilot starting today.
Ministers face a huge challenge to encourage the public to use the app, with developers warning around half of the population will have to download the software for it to be effective.
Concerns have also been raised about how data on people’s location and contacts will be used, and
whether the system risks excluding the elderly and those without mobile phones.
The First Minister said there would have to be “significant levels of trust in the privacy elements” of the software, which will use mobile phone bluetooth technology to automatically log the people users come near.
Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government’s own test, trace and isolate strategy unveiled yesterday would not be built around the app, which could be rolled out across the UK within weeks.
The UK Government said its own “test, track and trace” infrastructure would be in place by the middle of this month, with around 18,000 contact tracers needed to follow up on contacts reported by the app and by members of the public.
Thousands have already been recruited, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday.
Mr Hancock urged residents on the Isle of Wight – chosen because of its geographic isolation, sizeable population and comparatively limited coronavirus outbreak – to “stay home, download the app, protect the NHS and save lives”.
The app, which asks for the first part of a user’s postcode, allows people to alert the NHS if they have symptoms and book a Covid-19 test.
The app then tells them to self-isolate until they receive their test results.
Anyone who has been in close proximity with a suspected coronavirus case will receive a text message telling them to also isolate for 14 days. If the first person’s test is negative, both they and their contacts will be told it is safe to come out of isolation.
England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-tam, said there was “fairly significant optimism” that enough people would use the app.
But Matthew Gould, chief executive officer of NHSX – the digital arm of the health service – admitted the app was not a “silver bullet” solution.
Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government was building its own digital infrastructure to trace suspected coronavirus cases, but said the app “is separate to that digital approach”.
“We believe it could be a very important part of a TTI system, but as an enhancement,” Ms Sturgeon said.
“It’s important to be clear in Scotland we’re not building our whole system around that.”